


once again on the road (but this time it's home)

by ashtopop



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Road Trip, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-04
Updated: 2015-11-05
Packaged: 2018-04-29 23:36:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 1,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5143034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashtopop/pseuds/ashtopop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everything is happy, nobody dies, and the only orb around is the World's Largest Ball of Twine. Road trip AU! Short, connected, out-of-order bits.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

There was a light jacket rolled up in the window crevice to block out any would-be invasion of sunlight. She could hear the speakers hissing below whatever eclectic mix of music Hawke, as current front-seat passenger slash navigator slash self-appointed DJ had decided to plug into the cassette converter. Their sodas swung in the cupholders each time the station wagon went over a bump, so Hawke had taken to keeping her hand over them like a protective mother hen.

In the back, among suitcases and their snack cooler, Isabela was clearly still sleeping off her hangover, head against the window and mouth slightly open. With her only supporter, Isabela, asleep in the back, Cassandra had been outvoted. She was no longer allowed to sit up front unless she was driving, given her tendency to embarrass the car with romance audiobooks equal parts sappy and sordid. She listened to them anyway, looking out the window with a bemused expression, holding her headphones at their splitting cord so they still produced sound.

Varric drove, making up stories about the cars they passed on their journey. 391 WTK from Québec? Housewife who’d left her husband—he’d been cheating on her with a younger woman—and emigrated. She missed real maple syrup and Wine Wednesdays with her “yoga” class, but she didn’t miss him. ICP 181 from Iowa? Student heading home for the summer. JBL 420 from Colorado? “That one writes itself.”

And Solas slept.

It was hardly surprising, given that he kept a monk’s hours—rising early in the morning to? Meditate? Do yoga? No one really knew because no one could A) wake up that early or B) stay up that late. What was surprising was that his head was on her shoulder, and, in turn, her hand was on his, sinking into the thick knit that had no place in high summer. Surrounded by his contagious, sleepy warmth, logic had no hold on her. She curled inward, providing him a better cushion, and pushed her hair away when it slipped from behind her ear to brush his freckled cheek, running her thumb along it in its place.

She couldn’t help the small, soft smile that crossed her lips. They drove across state lines at 70 mph in a station wagon filled with life and sound, but it seemed to her that all the world had stopped moving to encompass that piece—their peace. She tucked herself further into the corner of the backseat, letting the rhythms of travel lull her to sleep.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These "bits" are going to vary wildly in size, form and content.
> 
> But I pinky promise, swear on my life, etc. that in this alternate universe everything is happy and the biggest problem is that Kirk (that's the station wagon, it's a '94 Volvo 850 wagon in green if anyone was DYING to know that) might break down and Isabela has to pee every time she sees a sign for a gas station. Also! Hawke likes to wear black and also likes those awful (and by that I mean they are HEAVENLY and all I want from life) powdered donuts that come in a bag? Yeah. You see the problem.


	2. Chapter 2

Hawke popped out of the car as soon as it rolled to a stop, even before Varric put it in park. Her door was flung open to the sweltering southern air but she sighed in contentment, stretching long legs and throwing her arms into the air. This performance did not go unnoticed by Varric, who told her she could drive, if she wanted to.

At the next pit stop, Hawke was relegated back to the passenger’s seat, Isabela dropping to the cement to kiss it.

“There was a _squirrel!_ ” Hawke defended.

“Uh huh,” Varric said.

 


	3. Chapter 3

“That’s all you have left?” Varric repeated, credit card still at his fingertips. He glances over the assembled group—two elves, three humans, and one dwarf, and sighs. “We’ll make it work.”

The hotel clerk’s bored eyes sweep over the party as well, taking in their bedraggled appearance. “Only two guests are allowed to a Queen size room,” she said.

Hawke leaned over the counter, smiling charmingly. “Oh, don’t worry! The rest of us will just figure something else out.”

The hotel clerk looked doubtful, but took Varric’s card to swipe anyway. “Have a nice stay,” she said as they walked away, a doleful note in her voice.

Isabela, Varric and Hawke had all seemingly shared a bed before (none of them wanted the details), and Cassandra insisted she would take the scant inches from floor to wall, leaving the two elves to sleep on the couch.

Hawke curled around Varric, her fingers on his exposed chest and her breath whispering in his ear. Varric had grown used to the way she used her long limbs as a snake might use its body, constricting around its prey. Behind her, Isabela threw one leg over hers and wrapped her arms around Hawke’s waist, insisting they could fit one more with an eyebrow wiggle at Cassandra, who responded only with a disgusted noise.

Solas fell asleep sitting up on the sofa, Lavellan’s head in his lap and his fingers in her hair. That day he didn’t wake up early, but merely lifted his eyelashes when Cassandra laid one blanket over them both and another over the tangle of bodies on the bed.

In each hotel room, Cassandra marked a passage in the bedside copy of the Chant that some passerby might take comfort in. In their current room there was no copy of the Chant, but she could be satisfied with the contentment of her friends.

Also, the later they woke up the more she could read of Varric’s latest chapter.

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

"I've done my time in the driver's seat, folks. Time for someone else to take the reins," Varric said through the window, his hand still on the gas pump. Solas looked up from his book with disinterest, Lavellan resting on his shoulder, but Isabela poked her head up from where she'd been laying down in the trunk.

"No," Varric preempted. Isabela pouted.

"Excuse me, has anyone else sailed around the seven seas? No? Just me?" she said. "Then who better to pilot us?" She adopted a low voice, passingly similar to Varric's. _"Why, Rivaini, that's the finest idea you've ever had!"_ She returned to her own voice with a sigh of long-suffering. "No, Varric, remember when I locked you and Hawke in the Hanged Man's bathroom so you would stop pussyfooting around each other and fuck already?" She adopted Varric's voice again, _"True, Rivaini, true. You're brilliant. How could I ever doubt your ability?"_

"There are fewer obstacles and innocent pedestrians in the middle of the ocean, Rivaini," Varric said.

"There are no innocent pedestrians. Only point values," Isabela said, sinking back into her hidey hole.

"I will drive," Cassandra volunteered, setting her book down on her lap. "Isabela will navigate—by stars, if she must—and Varric and Hawke can both have a break." She nodded, pleased it was settled, and got out of the car.

Hawke emerged from the gas station with a bounty of snacks and significantly fewer shredded pantaloons than everyone had expected. Hawke climbed into the back of the station wagon without complaint, inviting Varric to settle between her legs so they could both work on the crossword.

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

"I can't believe you just called him Chuckles!" Hawke said, interrupting their Game of Cows.

"Chuckles was never your real nickname, Hawke. I thought you knew that."

"Well, what is it then?" she said, crossing her arms in a huff.

"Dearest," he said, looking over at her with a smile. "Snookums. Light of my life. Sweetie. Honey. Never baby, because you hate being infantilized. Blossom. Sugar. _Hawke_."

"Oh get a room," Isabela groaned from the back. Cassandra, however, looked upon the exchange with dreamy eyes.

"That is... acceptable," Hawke said, snuggling back into her raised knees.

 


	6. Chapter 6

"That is only _one_  cow, Varric. I will be taking a point deduction," she said, taking a thoughtful munch of the popcorn in her lap.

"What? There were definitely _at least_ two cows in that field," he said. He looked to Hawke for back-up (she was always his best weapon against Cassandra), but she was sleeping, head hammocked in her seat belt tension.

"No. There were not," she said, making a note on the neatly ordered page.She threw a piece of popcorn at the back of his head to serve as penalty for doubting her judgment's impartiality. "Your current total is -30."

"This is payback for killing off the Knight-Captain in the latest chapter, isn't it?"

"This is payback for killing off someone _who did not deserve it!_ "

 


End file.
